Overview
This article describes how to access the Performance Dashboard, run scans, and interpret your results.
Background
The Performance Dashboard analyzes your website and generates scores across four key areas: Performance, Accessibility, Best Practices, and Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Results are collected from a selected geographic location, giving you a view of how your site loads for visitors around the world.
Availability
The Performance Dashboard is available on fully hosted domains on the following plans:
The Performance Dashboard is not available for DreamCompute, Self-Managed VPS, or redirected domains.
Accessing the Performance Dashboard
To open the Performance Dashboard for a domain:
- Navigate to the Manage Websites page.
- Click the Manage button to open Website settings, which allows you to modify various configurations for your site.
- Click the Performance tab.
The Performance Dashboard opens and displays either your most recent scan results or a prompt to run your first scan.
Running scans
The dashboard supports both automated and manual scans.
Automated scans
On Managed VPS, DreamPress, and Dedicated Hosting plans, scans run automatically on a weekly basis. The dashboard displays the most recent results as soon as a scan completes. Shared/Web Hosting plans do not run automatic scans; the dashboard remains empty until you manually initiate one.
Manual scans
Any plan with access to the Performance Dashboard can run a manual scan at any time:
- Click the Run New Scan button in the top-right corner of the dashboard.
- Wait for the scan to complete. Once finished, you are automatically taken to the individual report.
If you navigate away before the scan finishes, the report will be available in your scan history once it is complete.
Manual scans are limited to once per hour. If a scan was recently completed, the Run New Scan button appears greyed out with the message "Scans limited to once per hour." The button becomes available again automatically after one hour. If no report is generated after 10 minutes, the scan times out.
Reading a report
Each report includes the following sections.
Scores
The report displays four scores at the top of the page:
- Performance — how quickly the page loads for visitors
- Accessibility — how usable the site is for people with disabilities
- Best Practices — whether the site follows modern web development standards
- SEO — how well the site is optimized for search engines
Scores range from 0–100. Select any score to expand its detailed breakdown. You can also toggle between Mobile and Desktop results using the switch in the top-right corner of the report, as mobile and desktop environments may load pages differently and produce different scores.
Core Vitals Assessment
The Core Vitals Assessment shows a pass or fail result based on five Web Vitals metrics:
- First Contentful Paint (FCP) — time until the first content appears on screen
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) — time until the largest visible element loads
- Total Blocking Time (TBT) — total time the page was blocked from responding to user input
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) — how much the page layout shifts unexpectedly during load
- Speed Index (SI) — how quickly the page visually fills in
Each metric displays your measured value against a color-coded scale: 0–49 (red), 50–89 (orange), and 90–100 (green).
Metrics
The Metrics section lists the measured values for each Core Vital.
Insights
The Insights section lists specific improvement opportunities identified during the scan, including estimated savings where applicable (e.g., "Document request latency — Est savings of 3,130 ms"). Items are organized by priority. Expand any item for details on what was found and how to address it. You can filter the audit items shown by selecting All, FCP, LCP, TBT, or CLS using the filter bar.
AI Summary
Each individual report includes a Create Summary button that generates an AI-powered summary of the full report. The summary highlights key findings, prioritizes the most critical issues, and suggests steps to improve your scores.
Report history
The Performance Dashboard displays your six most recent scans in the report history table. Each row includes the date and time the scan ran, the report type (Automated or Manual), the scan location, and your Performance, Accessibility, Best Practices, and SEO scores. To view all past reports, click View Report History below the table.
FAQs
Which plans include automated weekly scans?
Managed VPS, DreamPress, and Dedicated Hosting plans run scans automatically on a weekly basis. Shared/Web Hosting plans do not run automatic scans; you can still run a manual scan at any time from the dashboard.
Why does my Performance Dashboard show no results?
If you are on a Shared/Web Hosting plan, the dashboard remains empty until you manually initiate a scan. Click Run New Scan in the top-right corner of the dashboard to start your first scan.
Can I run a scan more than once per hour?
No. Manual scans are limited to once per hour. The Run New Scan button becomes available again automatically after one hour has passed since the last scan.
Do Mobile and Desktop scores differ?
Yes. Mobile and desktop environments load pages differently, so scores may vary between the two views. Use the toggle in the top-right corner of a report to switch between them.